Greenland is pushing Ukraine off the agenda
Beleaguered Ukrainian energy officials in Davos are running short of money and fear being overlooked.
Beleaguered Ukrainian energy officials in Davos are running short of money and fear being overlooked.
Tensions are escalating between the United States and Europe after President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on eight European allies that oppose his push to take over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. Thousands took part in protests in Greenland and Denmark over the weekend to oppose Trump’s annexation threats. Julie Rademacher, chair of Uagut, an organization for Greenlanders in Denmark, tells Democracy Now! that Trump’s rhetoric is a threat to everyone. “This is not only Greenland being attacked. This is democracy, freedom and the world order as we know it that’s being attacked.”
One month after the deadline set by Congress for the Justice Department to release all files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump administration has made available less than 1% of the files. This comes as President Trump has dramatically expanded immigration operations in Minnesota while attacking Venezuela, threatening to bomb Iran and maintaining that the United States will annex Greenland. Trump’s campaign promised “that the files would be released, all of the files. Now, that’s not happened,” says legal expert Michele Goodwin, calling it a “travesty.”
Federal agents carrying out the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration actions in Minnesota have been widely accused of using excessive force, arresting U.S. citizens, denying people access to legal counsel and other violations. Now President Trump has put 1,500 U.S. military troops on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota under the Insurrection Act, which would mark another major escalation in his attack on dissent. “The federal government is not above the law,” says legal expert Michele Goodwin, who says the administration’s violent crackdown in Minnesota marks a “reversal” of how federal force was used during the civil rights movement to protect peaceful protest. “It’s quite horrific.”
Democracy Now! producer John Hamilton reports from Minneapolis, where residents say ICE agents are violently targeting legal observers and community members as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. Patty O’Keefe, who was arrested while monitoring ICE activity in her vehicle, said agents “broke our two front windows and dragged us out,” then taunted her in custody. She said one agent told her, “You guys got to stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead,” referring to Renee Good, the mother of three shot dead earlier this month by an ICE agent. Indigenous residents have also been detained. “Nobody is more American than the American Indian,” Oglala Sioux attorney Chase Iron Eyes told Democracy Now!, adding ICE’s actions against Native Americans are “a legal impossibility.” This comes as the Pentagon has placed 1,500 soldiers on standby for a possible deployment to Minnesota, just days after President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. The Trump administration has also reportedly opened criminal investigations into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, all while declining to investigate Good’s killing.
The World Economic Forum helps oil-rich countries frame themselves as both a destination and a source of capital.